England Cricket 2018

Well the summer is up and running at Lords and England are batting and Stoneman is already out. In fairness it looked like a belter of a delivery, the sort you get as an opener in May. His bat came down a bit crooked but even if it had come down straight he'd probably just nicked off.

Batting first seems an odd choice given its May and there's been lots of rain around this morning. I guess they think batting last is going to be tricky, we'll see.

Paul Wilkinson: So chatting with Jonny Bairstow in the Long Room this morning I asked him what's the main difference batting at five rather than six. He replied, batting at five means we'll be not many for three when I go out to bat, rather than not many for four.

The Pakistan bowlers showed good discipline and control and it would appear that England underestimated them and didn't believe they could do much damage to their own powerful (on paper) batting line up. It will be interesting to see if the Pakistan batsmen can manage to build a decent first innings lead or if they will collapse and the pendulum swing back in England's favour.

You're ignoring that it was a bonkers decision to bat first on that wicket and in those conditions. The Pakistan captain looked a bit baffled but pretty pleased when the decision was made. The brains trust in that side is anything but. Root's not a test quality captain imo.

You're ignoring that it was a bonkers decision to bat first on that wicket and in those conditions. The Pakistan captain looked a bit baffled but pretty pleased when the decision was made. The brains trust in that side is anything but. Root's not a test quality captain imo.

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When you win the toss you need to think very carefully - then bat. In conditions that appear to favour the bowlers, you need to really consider the possibilities, then bat. Especially at Lords. If it was Trent bridge and it was damp and overcast, then you might consider bowling.

You're ignoring that it was a bonkers decision to bat first on that wicket and in those conditions. The Pakistan captain looked a bit baffled but pretty pleased when the decision was made. The brains trust in that side is anything but. Root's not a test quality captain imo.

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Maybe it was a "bonkers" decision and maybe it wasn't, I guess we'll know for sure with the benefit of hindsight by the end of the test.
Regardless the decision, England simply didn't bat well enough (except for Cook), and Pakistan batting in not great conditions in the evening managed to get to 50-1 against a good England attack. Apparently there were concerns about how the pitch would play on the last day which was one of the reasons they chose to bat first.

When you win the toss you need to think very carefully - then bat. In conditions that appear to favour the bowlers, you need to really consider the possibilities, then bat. Especially at Lords. If it was Trent bridge and it was damp and overcast, then you might consider bowling.

It's quite easy to be an armchair captain. I don't think England rated Pakistan that highly and maybe felt that apart from one or two individuals ( eg M Amir ) the Pakistan bowling attack wasn't strong enough to do much damage. Pakistan also batted in overcast conditions against good bowlers. If Pakistan can capitalise on their fairly solid start they England might struggle to win, however if their batsmen can show the same sort of discipline that their bowlers showed yesterday then they should be in with a shout of at least getting a draw. From what I saw, even though the pitch was green, it wasn't unplayable and the low England score had more to do with poor shots than anything else.

They've taken the Rajasthan Royals middle order and put them out in a 5 day match at Lords with nothing in between. That in itself is pretty fucking stupid. Of course they're going to be playing 'poor' shots. They've just come from bashing it to all corners in India and getting applauded off the ground for lasting 30 balls.

They've taken the Rajasthan Royals middle order and put them out in a 5 day match at Lords with nothing in between. That in itself is pretty fucking stupid. Of course they're going to be playing 'poor' shots. They've just come from bashing it to all corners in India and getting applauded off the ground for lasting 30 balls.

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Stoneman, Root, Bairstow and Malan don't really have that excuse. Too many poor shots from the top five was the initial problem. Then the lower middle order couldn't bail them out. Only Cook batted well yesterday. So yes, the decision to bat looks bad now, but Pakistan might have made a much better fist of things batting yesterday, and that could have made the decision to bowl first look bad. The toss decision wasn't the real problem yesterday. The real problem was bad shots from the top order leading, yet again, to a score of 50-3. You can't always get away with that.

So, with a score of 350-8 (effectively 9), Pakistan already have a decent first innings lead. Assuming England get the last remaining wicked relatively quickly. They will need a similar 350 score to put Pakistan under pressure in the 4th innings. I'm not sure that the decision to bat first really made that much difference tbh, Pakistan batted in similar conditions but applied themselves better. England's batting and fielding has been poor and in contrast Pakistan have been for the most part controlled and disciplined, not traits normally associated with a Pakistan team.